Scratch a pacifist and a militarist peers out. My first emotion on hearing that Israel's Iron Dome had held firm and that Britain's Air Force had a significant part in the destruction of 99% of the air borne weaponry launched by Iran against Israel last night, was one of pride. Around 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles were launched at Israel by Iran overnight. And an amazing coalition of Israel, France, Britain, Jordan and the United States immediately formed to defeat them. Yeay, us! Boo, them. Avi Hyman, the Jerusalem spokesman, was quick to thank the allies for defeating the Iranian attack - but the British politicians interviewed this morning, including Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper and, godblesshispointedlittlehead, Ian and Duncan Smith, equivocated like mad, reluctant even to admit the presence of RAF planes and their regular flights in the vicinity. Their problem is that they are in thrall to the Muslim vote. This is why they describe the Middle Eastern situation as delicate and why they attempt to pretend that Britain is neutral in the Israel/Palestine situation, why the pro-Palestinian/anti-Semitic weekly demonstrations on the streets of London are tolerated, despite the noisy and overt incitement to violence and to ethnic hatred. And this is the chicken-roosting consequence of a migration policy which encouraged pluralism rather than integration. The United States early grasped the nettle of indoctrination - knowing that it had to form a national identity following the Civil War and that catching them young was the way to go - the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1885
 |
| children of Japanese ancestry together with white schoolfellows pledging allegiance to the American flag in 1942. |
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
This doesn't happen in British schools. There is no British equivalent of the Pledge of Allegiance and you'd be hard put to it to find a Union Jack in British schools, especially in Scoatland.. . I suppose this is because, as a nation, we are terribly embarrassed and ashamed about Empire, the Union is always on the brink of falling apart, we think patriotism is a dirty little emotion, and we are hollowed out by liberalism, a liberalism that has allowed the proliferation of practices that are culturally inappropriate to Britain, activism that asserts lies as truth and intimidates truth speakers. Our commitment to religious toleration has allowed the proliferation of faith schools, where unBritish beliefs and attitudes are taught, and we find ourselves in the position of Henry VIII and his fiery-headed daughter, Elizabeth I.
It has only recently occurred (slow learner) to me that all that torture and execution of Catholics had very little to do with religious difference - after all, it was the same bloody religion, Christianity, with the same set of beliefs. No, it was because Henry and Elizabeth needed to eradicate a set of powerful people who owed their allegiance to the ruler of a foreign country, one of the oldest continuously functioning states of Europe, the Papal States, a territory that stretched from Rome and its environs north-eastward to the Adriatic Sea, was immensely wealthy and represented an existential threat to the newly autonomous England, which had thrown off Papal rule, not because of a religious problem per se, but because the Pope would not acquiesce with Henry's dynastic need to have a legitimate son. And Elizabeth continued with the policy because she needed to maintain that she was Henry's legitimate heir by his second wife and not the bastard daughter of his mistress, conceived and born during the lifetime of his first wife.
The analogy, of course, is that Britain's Muslim population owes more allegiance to events unfolding in the Middle East than they do to the West. The percentage of Muslims in England and Wales is tiny: the 2021 Census recorded an Islamic population of 6.5%, whereas the same Census recorded 46.2% of the population as Christian. But the uneven distribution of Muslims across the nation, being concentrated in the large cities, can give a very different impression - and politicians of all colours court the Muslim vote to retain their seats in these city constituencies.
So there'll be no Yeay, us and Boo, them as our politicians obscure the extent to which Britain supports Israel in its existential war against its Islamic neighbours who are striving to eradicate the state of Israel.
In February, Reuters reported that Iran provided Russia with 400 missiles including many from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, such as the Zolfaghar. This road-mobile missile is capable of striking targets at a distance of between 300 and 700 km (186 and 435 miles). Well, what of it, an Iranian official said, you want to make something of it? "There will be more shipments," a second Iranian official said. "There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export weapons to any country that we wish to."
They certainly tried to export 300 to Israel on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
You remember Ian and Duncan Smith? Universally derided for his campaign slogan: the quiet man is turning up the volume, a doomed Leader of the Conservative Party, who never got to be Prime Minister, maybe because of his habit of picking his nose and eating it in the House of Commons.
He allowed himself to chortle and smirk this morning on the Laura Kuenssberg show, at the expense of Angela Rayner. Another OhDoFuckOff moment.
For our overseas readers, and those who do not take much of an interest in politics - that would be you, Ruby Wax, self-identified pea-brain, who finds British Politics just too, too confusing because of her Mental Health ishoos, who has written several books about those ishoos - sorry, digressed. Back on track - Angela Rayner is the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. She's vulgar. And funny. Describes herself as John Prescott in a skirt. John Prescott being the vulgar Deputy Prime Minister in Tony Blair's government, who performed the useful function of keeping the working man identifying with Blair's brand of Labour - against all reason. Famous for punching a member of the public who threw an egg at him.
She's not had an easy life, Angela. She left her Stockport Comprehensive School at the age of 16, having fallen pregnant, raised her child as a single parent, worked for the local council as a care worker and joined the trade union Unison, where she flourished, becoming a trade union representative. She joined the Labour Party, where, again, she flourished, elected to the seat for Ashton-under-Lyne in the 2015 general election. She was appointed Shadow Deputy Prime Minister in a 2023 re-shuffle, and looks set to be Deputy Prime Minister when Labour win the 2024 General Election - which the polls tell us is the likely outcome. She is immensely popular and has been quick to call out Tory corruption. All this enrages Conservatives, including, by his undignified crowing today, Ian Duncan Smith.
The Mail on Sunday, a deeply Conservative newspaper of sorts, had a go at Angela Rayner in April 2022 when it ran the leg distraction story. The article was widely condemned, with Boris Johnson describing it as "sexist tripe". Mr Northern Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle called the story "misogynistic and offensive" and requested a meeting with the Mail on Sunday's editor, David Dillon. In response to the invitation, the Daily Mail published a front page headline which read: "No Mister Speaker: In the name of a free press, The Mail respectfully declines the Commons Speaker's summons...".
The Independent Press Standards Organisation received 5,500 complaints about the article. It reported and investigated possible breaches of clauses 1 (accuracy), 3 (harassment) and 12 (discrimination) of the Editors' Code of Practice. Possibly still smarting after Rayner revealed that she herself had started the story as a joke, The Mail on Sunday has had another go at Rayner. Last month it serialised a book by former Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, in which it was claimed that Rayner was guilty of tax fraud, in the sale of her former council house - namely that she did not declare a Capital Gains liability. The sum involved is in the region of £3000. This was 10 years ago. To be clear, you do not have to pay capital gains tax if the house you have sold is your home, in which you are living. Capital Gains only arises in the sale of a second home. The suggestion was that Rayner was living in her husband's home, from whom she is divorced. Rayner refused to publish her tax records or tax advice, and stated that she had done nothing wrong. Greater Manchester Police initially refused to investigate the allegations but later said they would review their decision not to investigate, after James Daly, Conservative MP for Bury North asked them to do so.
Chortling Ian and Duncan Smith, said "ho ho, do as you would be done by".
If you draw the conclusion that this is unpleasant Conservative spite, and revenge for the many times that Rayner has called out Tory financial shenanigans, then I would have to agree with you.
I would suggest a quick rubdown with a housebrick might be helpful, but I suspect this whole witch hunt will become a shit explosion as, yet again, Tories and the Tory press have revealed themselves in their true blue colours.
Talking of Tories, remember Willy Wagg, featured last week, with his magnificent privy member?
What is now being referred to as the Westminster honey trap, seems to be becoming curiouser and curiouser, as more and more MPs, SPADS, and journalists reveal that they have been contacted by Abbi or Charlie, or possibly Abbi and Charlie. There's a suggestion that this is not being perpetrated by China, but is another example of British investigative journalism/scamming. It does seem to have put paid to Oor Wullie's parliamentary career, though.
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The four-volume Call Me Ishmael oeuvre, collected and curated by editor mr verge, is available on Lulu and Amazon.
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23 comments:
The reality of the strike was a little different, I suggest.
First it was a symbolic strike by Iran. Some fireworks for show - they had to retaliate to appease local opinion after Israel bombed their consulate (a war crime NTW, and technically a declaration of war). For this they sent some slow drones which were mostly shot down.
But second, a real warning and proof that the Iron Dome is in reality useless. For this they included a handful (6 or so) hyper-sonic missiles which landed on target destroying 2 military airfields. These missiles, which Iran has in the thousands, cannot be intercepted.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/video-evidence-shows-several-iranian-cruise-missiles-slammed-their-targets
Israel have said they fired $1.3 Billions worth of interceptors, which are in short supply. So, further, in the case of a real strike, the Iron Dome will be overwhelmed.
The message sent by Iran was: "we don't want to escalate to full war, just largely a token strike, but if you retaliate we can annihilate you".
PS - some sobering words from an expert.
https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/the-missiles-of-april
The first casualty of war, mr mike, is the truth. It was ever thus.
The other truth is that if the middle eastern forces who hate Israel could prevail, they would have prevailed by now. Israel is the proxy. Almost every strategic question the world has has its crossroads where Europe meets Asia and they both meet Africa. (Apart that is from the cold stare across the Pacific from China to California.
And Iran is a tyranny and will surely fall before I am dead. Time to reheat my Islamic Reformation notion?
And the Growler Bearer? Poor Angela is about as clever as my cat. That's the dead one under the ground in the garden. This does not mean that I disrespect her nor her difficult early life - Fuck! I had one of those myself - but I do disapprove of pretending that a person such is fit to be a heartbeat away from running the country in a 12-month. She is, mrs i, and you should found a group with JK Rowling, a token. Poor Angela is indeed Prescott. A useful idiot that shows what a decent chap the Starmer thing is. Northern, working class, got knocked up at school and ginger. Fuck me, mrs i. Angela is almost perfect. Is it for tis that the clay grew tall?
with regard to ms angela raver, mrs ishmael, i'd agree with your summation of her as a successfully striving young care-worker and union rep, however these days, to merely maintain membership of the parliamentary labour party is tantamount to being a corrupt social sell-out, an evil pandemic-hoaxer, a mass-murdering lockdown-fascist, a vicious genocidal vaccinator, and a career-feathering - not-to-mention washington-fellating - neo-imperialist war-monger.
now, in reality, raver's not getting the boot because she's been picked-off by the conservatives or the daily wail, but because sir keir strafer and his far right mates in the white house are worried that she might have a shade of the war-allergic left about her - rather like her former leader the anti-nato mr coffee-bean.
yes, what the washington-firm bomb-'em blitzen and co really fears is that the red raver could throw a pacifist spanner in the works, just as biden's blood-mineral-gang were about to whip-up another lovely war - and so she's gotta go for much the same reason as obstinate old party-pooper jeremy conscience...
yet there again, pierced-flange ange is about as ambitious as they come, and seems ready to goose-step all the way to stalingrad - if that's where the nato-gravy-train's headed - so maybe sir killer's simply worried about his own job-security, and having the living shit kicked outta him by a fearsome fanny-flashing adversary lurking to his left.
well, either way, the stitch-up's been hatched from within the highest echelons of the cia-ass-licking labour party, and it all sure stinks to hell.
No! Surely not, mr ultrapox? This has got Tory spite all over it. I do think Rayner is very useful to the Labour Party in just the way that Prescott was - embarrassing-yes, stupid -yes, vulgar-dear god yes; but she is popular with working class women, trade unionists and the north. And she has great hair. For all Starmer is not sprung from the ranks of the establishment, attended a fairly ordinary grammar school and Leeds University, not Cambridgefuckery; he subsequently attained establishment status, what with being a barrister, head of the Crown Prosecution Service, and a Sir to boot. Rayner, just like Prescott (who didn't have great hair) allows the northern working class trade unionist voter to think that Labour is still the party that it used to be and that it represents their interests. Great trick, that. Why throw her under a bus? I don't suppose she goes down well with the Muslim vote, though.
what mr mongoose said. All of it.
Thank you, mr mike, as ever, for providing us with a wider perspective than is generally available through the MSM. Both positions are true - 99% of the weaponry fired at Israel by Iran was intercepted by Israel and its allies - but the few missiles that got through hit their targets, which were legitimate targets of retaliation, having been the launch sites for Israel's attack on the Iranian building in Syria.
It may well be the case that Iran is carefully avoiding war and that this air bombardment of Israel was performative - it did take them almost a fortnight to decide on and implement their retaliation - but the effect on Western populations of seeing the night sky over Israel lit up by enemy bombardment will be to harden attitudes against Iran. They might not care, of course.
Israel, whilst initially having the sympathy of the west following the invasion of its sovereign territory by an enemy whose war aims have always been genocide and the removal of the state of Israel from the world's map, an enemy which inflicted atrocities and kidnapped Israeli citizens to hold as hostages, lost much sympathy when it invaded Gaza to recover those hostages and retaliate against Hamas, a puppet of Iran. People don't like to see the consequences of war, and would prefer that Israel had conducted its war aims (the removal of Hamas and hostage recovery) in a more genteel and less bloodthirsty way, especially when it seemed they were deploying Mediaeval siege methods against Gaza.
Public sympathy now swings back to support Israel, seen as a plucky little country facing off against an implacable existential enemy capable of anything. The night skies filled with missiles inevitably puts more mature observers in mind of the German Blitzes of London, Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton, Sunderland, Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow, Birmingham, Coventry, Manchester, and Sheffield. More than 40,000 civilians were killed by Luftwaffe bombing during the Second World War and a million houses were destroyed or damaged. Think of the Second World War and the Holocaust immediately comes to mind, and the murder of six million Jews by those frightfully neat and efficient Germans.
Israel is neither big enough, nor wealthy enough, nor has enough men and women under arms to stand alone against the hostile coalition determined to eradicate it. The events of the 13th and 14th of April have produced a Western coalition to support it.
As the world polarises into Western democracy versus Eastern theocracy, autocracy and communism, it increasingly looks like the never-ending war is breaking cover. Remember that the NATO countries have been advised to reintroduce conscription.
We wait to see what Israel will do next.
Mrs I: here is a video just posted which perfectly sums up where we are. Its from Alastair Crooke (30 years MI6) who knows more about this region than probably anyone in the West. Very highly recommended. 25 mins or so (fast forward the short add at the start). He discusses the missile business and its ramifications 5 mins or so in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1vdquXGyX0
As he concludes: we at a fork in the road.
For a bit of perspective, this is the Rafah corner of Gaza:
Map.
The left side is Egypt = desert. The RHS Upper is Gaza = shit-hole. The RHS Lower is Israel = orderly, modern, functioning society.
Mr Crooke talks about Israeli defeat in Gaza and perhaps he is right but only because every bastard on the earth shrieks for acceptance, for appeasement. Perhaps a victory might be the erasure of Gaza. Bulldoze it into the sea and start again. Let the Gazans go to Egypt - it's across that wire - and build themselves a new paradise.
Mrs i, I would be proud to serve. JK, you, and a good Catholic terf boy. We'd set the world straight in half a day.
mr mongoose said on 15 April 2024 at 23:12
"victory might be the erasure of Gaza. Bulldoze it into the sea and start again. Let the Gazans go to Egypt" well said sir, but your solution has a major downfall, literally every state surrounding Israel will NOT allow Gaza occupants on their soil. Might we enquire why? Well I think we know, but it is not polite to say so.
When Israel was formed from a literal dust bowl, displaced arabics were given a state-that state is Jordan, let them go there. During the last "peace" negotiations Israel forcibly removed its residents from Gaza and handed it to the Gazans,the area was left with fully functional greenhouses, solar systems, water systems and all the modern conveniences. Within a year the place was destroyed and they were throwing gays from the rooftops.
Yes, mr cascadian, nobody wants the Palestinians, and they should perhaps ask themselves why.
Part of the real and horrible truth is that anti-semitism - which has come to mean anti-jew-ism - runs very deep. Perhaps the rest of the semites, the arabian peoples of the world, have forgotten their roots. Or perhaps they remember them all too well.
But, as you say, for better or for worse, the deal struck was a Jordan and an Israel. But Jordan doesn't want their West Bank Palestinians these days. And any day now that's going to go up in flames again too.
Point of order, Mrs I: If you search through the archive, I think you will find I first introduced the term "growler", admittedly in relation to the ginger.
Its a term first donated to me by me old dad, God bless him, so I can't claim copyright.
Thanks for that, mr Mike (and your dad, too) - always good to have a reason to visit Eric Partridge's marvelous Dictionary of Slang. He tells us that "growl and grunt" was an occasional variation on "grumble and grunt" (what the occasion might be, he doesn't say) - itself an alternate rhyming slang expression with the same meaning as Berkeley Hunt (whence "berk", which - joy throughout the land - few seem to realise was once quite rude.) So I suppose it's possible, even likely, that growler (a la mode Angelique) comes from the same source. He also gives us "growl-biter", which I hadn't seen before - Sir Les Patterson would have been proud.
cheers
v./
I had not considered the suitability of Angela Rayner as a potential Deputy Prime Minister until this moment, but having reviewed recent Prime Ministers-BoJo, Gordon Brown, Theresa May- I ask myself what makes her unsuitable? Is this just ultra snobbishness? the girl don't talk proper. And so we have complete non-entities like the camoron conducting something akin to diplomacy that gets him completely ignored, because the people he wishes to talk to recognize him as a moron with a "proper" accent.
If Kamala Harris, Annalina Baerbock, Chrystia Freeland (that should puzzle some readers), can hold similar positions of authority that potentially place them as leaders should a fortunate event occur, then why not Angie? I would suggest she is at least as capable as Kamala, who is also no stranger to deploying her female sexual abilities in the political sphere.
Mr cascadian: as you rightly point out there is a preponderance of women dominating the psychopathic wing of the political polity. One could add historic figures such as Clinton, Albright, Nuland etc.. What is it with these "women" that they want to kill? Are they, mistakenly, trying to prove they are men? Or is it more complex than this?
That's an interesting question, mr mike. How do women gain high office in what remains a patriarchal culture? British political life remains dominated by men educated in same-sex public schools and either Oxford or Cambridge university. As of October 2022, of the 57 prime ministers to date, 30 were educated at Oxford University (including 13 at Christ Church), and 14 at Cambridg University (including six at Trinity College). 20 of them were educated at Eton. Only 3 of them were women, all of them Conservative. And the first female Prime Minister was Margaret Thatcher, taking up office in 1979, 60 years after the first female MP took her Plymouth Sutton seat in the Commons, for the Unionist (renamed the Conservative)Party, in 1919. That was Nancy Astor, an American who married into the British aristocracy - about as far from Angela Rayner as it is possible to imagine.
I don't think for a minute women who are war-mongers are trying to prove they are men, any more than men who loathe violence and embrace pacifism are closet women. But I do think that a certain personality-type is attracted to politics and power. I don't know if that personality type is evenly distributed between the genders, but the fact that there are more men than women in politics is a reflection of the organisation of British democracy - selection committees have their own gender bias, party donors bring influence to bear, the Tories, in particular, all knew each other from school or Varsity, and because voters prefer to be represented by a man, it takes an exceptional woman to be first selected, let alone voted in as a Member of Parliament. And that is just the start of the greasy pole smarming, bumming and negotiating that leads to a seat around the Cabinet table.
Trade Union politics are even more bureaucratic, with a similar closed-shop and male-preferred bias. Just the fact that Angela Rayner holds the position of Shadow Deputy Prime Minister demonstrates that she has all the political skills and cunning to be formidable when her party is elected. We'll find out soon enough.
Thanks, mr verge, for holding your nose and taking a deep dive into the history of slang. I'm thinking that the development of rhyming slang relating to women's sexual organs was not just rude, but essentially misogynistic - so it is quite fun that Angela Rayner has proudly adopted a sex based insult and made it her own by adding the Ginger identifier and given it a public airing. Go girl! I'm liking her more and more - but god knows what the international bankers will make of her, and, as mr ultrapox always tells us, it is they who hold the country's nuts.
I must see the world through a different lens mrs I, yes the majority of elite MPs, those who make it to higher office, are from the same schools, universities, ‘clubs’ and yes even families; much the same as throughout European history, be it monarchies, empires, Holy or military. The rest of those who make up the house of thieves see it as an easy ride to wealth, and future influence, future job opportunities. It can’t be any other way with the party system - fuck the local constituents, it’s what the party and it’s backers want that matters. Of course there are the perverts, fraudsters, deviants, peados and sick fuckers amongst the whole of ‘the house’ that is because of a lifetime of never being told NO by their parents, those sad liberal- lefty idiots who think it’s a human right to not be offended. Cunts.
I’ve listened to the ginger minge Rayner, she’s from my part of the world, talking down to local people, about local issues, thickas fuckinmince, can’t even parrot the party line proply. Tied in knots by ordinary folk over jobs, immigration, state of the roads and crime. I wouldn’t pin my hopes on her if I was you, Kieth Starer’ll bin her after the election.
No, women aren’t trying to be men, they’re trying to prove they are as tough, as hard, as callous as the men around them. Be willing to make the wrong decisions, decisions that cost lives of the fuckin plebs they look down on, wherever in the world they are.
It is like Douglas Adams said, mr inmate; "it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Well mr inmate I am sure your analysis of our Ange is quite correct, but having seen the assorted upper-class twits-of the year in action particularly as it relates to covid and Ukraine I am ready for some secondary-modern schooled MP's who "cannot parrot the party line". Perhaps something positive could be achieved by ignoring the "educated" credentialled classes.
These psychopaths who have attended the right schools and universities are a blemish on our parliaments. I give as an example Chrystia Freeland (Deputy PM of canaduh) a Rhodes scholar who none-the-less brought a nazi into canaduh's house of commons to receive a standing ovation. She also had protestors harassed, and beaten by Canada's military, and froze peoples bank accounts for protesting governments unlawful covid lockdowns. Bojo is barely better, the unelected camoron doing his war-mongering best is despicable
So bring on the secondary modern schooled underclasses, I say, they could do no worse.
Perhaps I didn’t explain Rayner’s answers to the local plebs correctly, mr cascadian, she didn’t have an answer either from the dark recesses of her mind nor did she know what the official party line was/is. It was just change the subject, blame the nasty tories, we will change everything an it’ll all be ok, trust us.
Yes strange how an old nazi can become a hero, no doubt Mr Hitler will be beatified at some time, when history has been officially rewritten. We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
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